Meet the Evans
by strawberryfinn
Summary: After high school musical, Gabriella convinces Troy to befriend Sharpay and Ryan with her, feeling guilty about taking their leads. But making friends with the Evans is a lot harder than it looks.


**Author's Note: **I don't own _High School Musical_ or any of the characters. I don't own any other companies I incorporate into this story. This story's about Gabriella and Troy trying to befriend Ryan and Sharpay after the whole high school musical thing happens. Only, it's a lot harder than it seems.

**Meet the Evans**

"Honestly, Gabriella," Troy Bolton sighed in an exasperated voice, shoving his brown hair behind his ear in frustration. "We beat them fair and square! They were the ones who tried to mess things up for us—I honestly don't know why you _care_!"

"Please, Troy," protested his girlfriend, Gabriella Montez with desperation in her voice. "I just don't want things to be bad between us and them—it isn't worth it!"

"We _beat _them!" show back Troy in a hissed whisper, jerking his arm furiously from Gabriella's grasp, his dark blue eyes flashing with anger.

Gabriella's lip began to tremble and her dark brown eyes looked on the verge of tears. She turned, her chocolate brown hair hiding her face, but Troy instantly felt guilty and put a hand comfortingly on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Gabi. It's just that they're so amazingly stuck-up and treat us like we're all inferior dirt or something."

Gabriella turned to Troy, running her arm slowly across her eyes. "But Troy, please?"

Troy didn't answer her. "Besides, Gabi—well Sharpay has liked me for the last ten years of my life! I mean—since kindergarten until _now_ and we're sophomores!"

"Troy, I think you're just scared of her," teased Gabriella, unable to keep a glint of laughter out of her eyes.

Troy didn't smile. "Maybe I _am_ Gabi. Ryan's pretty creepy too!"

"Come on Troy," said Gabriella. "Do it for me, _please?_ Please Troy?" She gave him an innocent look with her big brown eyes.

Troy couldn't say "no" to that look. "Ok," he muttered in defeat.

"Yay!" said Gabriella as she jumped to give Troy a hug. "Thanks, Troy."

Troy grumbled as Gabriella danced away. "No problem, Gabi. No problem at all."

xxx

"Hey Sharpay," said Gabriella, coming up next to the blonde girl as Sharpay stood next to her bright pink locker. She smiled in what she hoped looked like a friendly manner. She'd wanted Troy to talk to Sharpay but he'd flat-out refused, telling her he already had to tackle Ryan.

Sharpay looked suspiciously at Gabriella and Gabriella suddenly knew what Troy meant when he said Sharpay made "you feel like dirt." "What do you want, Gab-ri-ella Mon-tez?" she asked, stressing each syllable of the other girl's name. "If you want money, I'm _not _giving it to you. Daddy _only_ gave me a hundred dollars to spend today."

Gabriella's jaw dropped open. Sharpay threw her a scornful look and turned, flicking her blonde hair in Gabriella's face. Gabriella flushed and ran after her, trying not to stare at Sharpay's pink top that she would have _loved _to own. Well, Mrs. Evans did have her own clothing line that wasn't doing too portly.

"No, Sharpay. I just thought… well maybe you'd want to do something with me sometime. I mean you and Ryan could hang out with Troy and me or something…" Gabriella finished lamely, feeling herself turn redder as she suddenly found the tiled floor of East High more fascinating than anything she'd ever seen.

Sharpay gave her a look of pure shock and suspicion. Gabriella found herself suspecting that Sharpay had never been asked to do anything and felt embarrassed for trying to talk to _her._ Sharpay, after all, _was _known as the "Ice Queen" of East High. Gabriella couldn't help feeling bad though; Sharpay _had _to want some company besides her twin brother, Ryan. Then she remembered it didn't seem that Ryan had any friends either.

"And _why_ would I want to do something with _you?_" Sharpay tilted her head to the side in a way that made Gabriella look away once more as she coldly declined Gabriella's offer.

When Gabriella looked back up, Sharpay was already heading away, her head high up, her pace fast and steady in the typical example of the Ice Queen. Gabriella sighed. She could only hope that Troy was doing a better job with Ryan.

xxx

"Ryan, man, how are you _doing?_" Troy asked with probably the corniest smile in the history of the world plastered across his face.

"Hi… Troy," said Ryan uncertainly as he closed his locker, holding the books he needed for his Algebra II class the next period. "I'm fine, I guess." He turned to leave but Troy tagged after him, feeling a bit like an eager puppy.

"So, Ryan, I was wondering…" Troy broke off as Ryan turned to glance at him with an interested look on his face.

"Wondering what, Troy?" Ryan's blue eyes were wide and unblinking, starting to scare Troy. His clothes were also simply different today—a sky blue button up shirt and khaki pants with a matching blue hat. But his interest seemed genuine, so Troy started to relax, realizing that even though Sharpay and Ryan _were _twins, they seemed to be pretty different from each other.

"Do you want to come over to my house sometime so we can hang out?" Troy asked in an extremely rushed voice, hoping that Ryan had understood what he'd said so he'd never have to say it again.

"Uh, I guess," said Ryan, glancing at Troy in a rather bewildered manner. "Uh… _why?_"

"I just thought…" Troy said, trying to make his voice casual as he leaned against a locker, "maybe we could talk or something."

"Ok…" Ryan gave him a quizzical look as he continued walking down the hallway. "Sure, I'd like that. Wait, when do you want to do it?"

"How about Friday?" Troy answered, raising up his arms. "Maybe Friday's good for you?"

Ryan's face fell. "Um, Friday I have an acting lesson with Sharpay but would Saturday work for you?"

Troy nodded, "I guess."

"Wait," butted in Ryan, "I don't know if I can get a ride to your place—well, yeah, I can drive but my mom and dad want me—us, Sharpay and I—to stay around in case they have to leave or something because if they do I have to baby-sit for my little sister—Hillary—and well, yeah... How about you and Gabriella come over to my—our—place instead? I don't think my parents would mind."

"Sounds great," said Troy, already regretting his decision to ask Ryan to hang out. What was he going to do for the entire Saturday at the _Evans' _house? "So Gabi can come?" Well, at least Gabriella would have to suffer with him. It _was _her idea to befriend the Evans anyways.

"Yeah, I think Sharpay would want some company," Ryan said, catching a book with one hand as it nearly tumbled to the ground. "So, see you Saturday?"

"Yeah, sounds good. Thanks, Ryan."

"No problem," Ryan answered, walking towards his Algebra II class. When Troy had headed off to his own class Ryan stopped, muttering to himself, "I wonder what _that _was all about."

xxx

"Wow, Ryan, you've got a _sweet_ place," said Troy as Ryan opened the door to his house and he waved goodbye to his mother. He stepped into the Evans' house and instantly felt awed and rather uncomfortable at the vastness of it.

"Thanks," Ryan said, closing the door behind him. "It's pretty nice."

"_Pretty_ nice?" Troy echoed. "Ryan, it's… well, amazing." He glanced around, almost expecting his voice to echo back to him.

The Evans' house was four stories high—as he soon found out. Ryan gave him a tour of the place and Troy wondered why he was so surprised. It was obvious that the Evans family was rich—just judging by Ryan and Sharpay's clothes Troy could tell. Troy knew that Mr. Evans owned a hotel line and Mrs. Evans owned her own clothing line and both were doing extremely well but he'd never expected for anybody to be _this _rich. On the bottom floor, there was a large so-called "playroom" that included their own personal movie theater complete with a popcorn machine and cushioned red velvet seats. The second floor included a dining room, the nanny's room (for Ryan's younger sister), the laundry room (which was bigger than Troy's room), a spare closet (also bigger than Troy's room), and a bathroom. The third floor had a kitchen (which was almost the size of Troy's second floor all put together), a family room (with a _huge_ TV), a living room, and several other rooms. The fourth floor included all the Evans' own rooms. Troy glanced around nervously as he stared at all the bedrooms. There were four for the kids (Ryan, Sharpay, Hillary, and their oldest brother Matt) and one that was double the size of the kids for their parents. Each of their rooms were big enough that they could have their own king-size bed and a TV _and _a separate room for a closet (which was bigger than Troy's room) and another room for their own _bathrooms_. Troy, who had never believed himself to be poor, suddenly felt out-of-place in this splendor. He resisted the urge to look into Sharpay's room and followed Ryan to his own room.

Ryan's room was a light-colored blue with posters layered everywhere. Troy immediately felt more at ease in his room as he glanced around, seeing that the blonde had similar interests: Fall Out Boy, surfing—basically all the same excluding _The Phantom of the Opera_ poster in the corner. Troy glanced at it and Ryan flamed. Before he could say anything though, the doorbell rang.

xxx

Gabriella was nervous. More nervous, in fact, then she'd been for awhile. This anxiety battled the anxiety when she had been on the stage, performing openly for the first time in her life with Troy.

_Oh God, why do I do these types of things?_ she asked herself. But by then, it was too late. Sharpay had opened the door and glared at her, obviously wondering why on earth Ryan had invited her over.

"Hi Gabriella," she said smoothly. It wasn't a friendly tone, it was common decency.

"Hi Sharpay," Gabriella replied, trying to keep her voice steady. This really, really stank. How on earth did she think she could just waltz in to the Evans' house and immediately become their friends? Did she really think she was that good?

"So, what are we going to do today?" Gabriella asked, trying to break the ice.

"How am _I _supposed to know?" asked Sharpay coldly, throwing her a indifferent look. "Ryan invited you over, _not_ me."

"Oh," said Gabriella quietly. She followed Sharpay up the stairs—what else could she do? She thought about leaving right now, but then remembered how she'd _forced_ Troy to do this. She might as well be brave and take it the right way. She tried not to gape as she passed through the house—it was _huge._

Troy came out and waved "hi" to her, but then he followed Ryan back into the blonde's room. Gabriella sighed—this was a lot harder than she'd expected. She'd hoped that Troy would spend his time with her, but _no_, it looked like Ryan Evans was cooler than he seemed.

Gabriella followed Sharpay into a room and said, "It's so cute, Sharpay!" She was only trying to be nice as she glanced around at the huge room with its pink walls and array of clothes.

Sharpay threw her a disgusted look. "Montez, this is my closet."

Gabriella cringed. This would be a _long _day.

**Author's Note**: About Matt and Hillary. You may recognize them from FallingWithGrace's _Tainted Promise_ but I helped her write that story (yeah I know her... in real life), and they were sort of invented by both of us. Anyway, review for more maybe?


End file.
